Razor clam trial: annual report 2023-2024

6. Marine Directorate Coastal Operations

MD Coastal Operations continued to employ a risk-based approach to the inspection of vessels participating in the trial and deployed land and sea-based resources to monitor these vessels.

As per the trial terms and conditions, the owner of each vessel participating in the trial is entirely responsible for the purchase, installation and maintenance costs of all fishing apparatus, generating gear, and monitoring equipment specified by MD as necessary to participate in the trial. This includes a bespoke Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) device which is proving a highly valuable tool for both scientific data collection purposes and compliance management. All MD coastal offices and the Marine Protection Vessel fleet have access to live positional data of the vessels to aid inspections (subject to the 3G coverage in a vessel’s area of operation).

In trial year 2023 – 2024 Officers undertook 53 inspections both by inspectors on land and at sea where compliance was found to be good. In relation to daily landed catch limits, a total of 38 landings were weighed at the landing port, with one infringement found.

The REM data is received at the Fully Documented Fishery Unit (FDF), from where it is analysed remotely and verified for compliance. During the 2023 -24 year, 1777 voyages were analysed. Compliance with the requirements of the trial’s Terms and Conditions was found to be high. Post landing checks by the FDF unit identified a total of 12 minor breaches of terms and conditions of the trial and these were dealt with by way of a verbal rebrief, email and advisory letter. One owner failed to renew the subscription with the REM provider and their two boats had their derogations suspended. This was a result of the owner failing to notify a change of contact details and was resolved within 48 hrs and the suspension lifted. One minor breach relating to statutory returns was identified by a Coastal Office following post landings checks.